Crescendo
by xxhikari E
Summary: AU. They didn’t know what they were up for when they signed up to study abroad. "Something inside of Sasuke told him that with that very picture, he had made a pact with the three people standing beside him." Sasuke x Sakura.


**Crescendo**

**by xxhikari E**

**Summary - **AU. They didn't know what they were up for when they signed up to study abroad. "Something inside of Sasuke told him that with that very picture, he had made a pact with the three people standing beside him." Sasuke x Sakura.

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or probably anything you recognize.**

**A/N:** New story. The summary needs some working on. Please don't hurt me for not updating LWP, haha. Just an intro, tell me what you think.

**Chapter One - Nightfalling**

Sakura Haruno shut her eyes for the seventh time in two minutes.

"_Flight #166 to Florence, Italy begins boarding in twenty minutes at gate 32._"

Green eyes open lazily. She reached into her pocket and changed the song on her iPod a few times until she was satisfied. She felt a light vibration, and pulled out her cell phone.

_Sent from Ino-Pig at 7:15 AM._

_Hey. Sorry I'm late, I'll meet you in front of the gate in 5._

She stood up and stretched, rubbing the bottom of her leg, she cursed at herself for wearing cropped jeans. Sighing, Sakura pulled a severely creased orange paper out of her backpack. In large, bolded letters, the flyer read,

_Love the arts and interested in studying abroad?_

_Learn about yourself and the world through an incredible life experience - join us!_

_Konohagakure's Abroad Program gives students ages 15 to 18 the opportunity to experience multi-cultural forms of art in a variety of countries._

_College credit, exciting excursions, new friends! _

_Sign up today!_

And in the fine print,

_Student capacity: 40. See your counselor for more information._

She had been ecstatic when her registry teacher had handed her this flyer. She had always loved singing, but had only started choir in her sophomore year of high school. She mastered the talent of letting emotions flow through the song seamlessly, and had a good-enough range. Her voice could never go as high as Ino's, or as low as other people, but cut fairly close. Almost immediately after class, she rushed down to the office and filled in all the required forms. The papers were due no more than a week later. It had taken her two days to convince her parents to let her go. She turned 17 one month ago, and would soon be starting her senior year in high school, but they still insisted on treating her like a child.

This was no surprise. Sakura had never been off alone before. Her parents would only let her sleep over Ino's house, and that was only because they had known each other for almost their whole life. Although she was nervous, she knew that she had to start being more independent.

A month and a half later, two weeks before the last day of school, she received a letter regarding her acceptance into the program. She almost threw a party. Almost.

Luckily for her, Ino Yamanaka, her best friend, was also accepted. Ino was in choir as well, one of the lead sopranos. She had a powerful voice that could probably reach notes unheard of. Sadly, this powerful voice also came with daily banshee-like screams and a big mouth. That liked to complain a lot.

Sakura pulled the hood of her Kahori High School sweater over her head, covering only some of her pale pink hair. She stood up, slung her backpack and duffel bag over her shoulder, and grabbed her rolling suitcase.

With another sigh, she headed to gate 32.

**.o.o.o.**

_I've got time on my hands - do you too?_

_Oh no, so come around. _

**.o.o.o.**

_Clunk_.

"Ouch! What the hell, you bastard?"

"You were going the wrong way, and I didn't want to call out your name." Sasuke Uchiha rolled his eyes. He looked over his shoulder to where a blond boy was standing, eyes squinted in anger, camera hanging around his neck, and a big, red imprint of a can on his arm.

"_You_ lead us, then. It's not like we're late, the plane doesn't leave until 8, we're not meeting our teacher until 7:30, and it's only..." Naruto Uzumaki looked around, almost frantically, for a clock. Azure eyes lit up as he spotted one. "7:26!" He paused. "Shit."

Sasuke pulled out his cell phone and checked the time. Hey, you can never be sure. Maybe Naruto just doesn't know how to tell time.

_7:26 AM._

"We've been looking for this damned gate for hours-"

"-19 minutes-"

"And we can't find it! It's like the Hokage found out we were going, and decided to hide the number on our gate..."

Sasuke frowned. He closed his eyes, head falling back as he let out a breath.

"I knew that old lady wouldn't want us off on our own, not doing what she-"

His eyes opened slowly... A sign?

"-then we can't fetch her booze for-"

_Gates 30-49. Left – _

He glanced back at the blond before walking away.

**.o.o.o.**

_I've run out of plans, same as you?_

_Oh no, so come around. _

**.o.o.o.**

Ino Yamanaka flipped open her cell phone, glanced at the time, and cursed.

_7:28 AM._

"Sakura's going to go crazy if I'm the reason she's late."

She sped up her pace and ran head first into a blond boy who was staring at an empty space, looking extremely confused.

"Oh shit, I'm sorry." He reached down and offered her a hand.

She accepted it gratefully and her eyes widened a bit as she was lifted up like she weighed nothing at all. "Thanks." She smiled. "Well, I'm about to miss my flight-"

"Uh, wait." His hand went behind his head as he grinned sheepishly. "You wouldn't happen to know where I can find gate 32, would you?"

Ino blinked. "I'm headed there now." Her baby-blue eyes checked out the boy in front of her. "Walk with me." She demanded.

With a shrug, Naruto picked up his bags and trailed after her.

**.o.o.o.**

_We can turn the lights,_

_turn the lights down low._

_I know what you like._

_Won't you just let go of yesterday? _

**.o.o.o.**

She pinched the bridge of her nose.

_7:28 AM._

"That girl..."

Sea-foam green eyes scanned the room, pulling her hood off of her head as she did so. Spotting no sign of her best friend, she walked over to the large mass of teenagers that had congregated in front of the gate.

She stood beside a timid-looking girl with beautiful navy blue hair and striking pearl eyes.

"Hello, I'm Sakura Haruno." She held out a hand somewhat nervously. What if these people didn't shake hands?

"Hinata Hyuuga, it's a pleasure." Hinata gave her a shy smile.

Sakura smiled back before adverting her attention to the front awkwardly.

**.o.o.o.**

_I promised I was never gonna take you back._

_Baby, don't believe me._

_I said it like I meant it but I overreacted._

_Baby, don't you need me once more? _

**.o.o.o.**

His dark eyes surveyed the group in front of him.

It was a strange looking group. He could've sworn he saw pink hair somewhere in there...

_7:29 AM._

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Naruto walking with a- he had to admit- very pretty blonde girl.

He still wore a confused expression on his face, but that was expected. The blonde beside him looked somewhat anxious.

A squeal was heard, and he watched as the blonde ran over and tackled a pink-haired girl full on.

Pink.. Hair..?

"Sakura! I haven't seen you in weeks!"

Sakura- he assumed- embraced the girl and they both began talking animatedly.

Naruto walked over and joined the girls shamelessly.

Of course, they didn't seem to mind.

**.o.o.o.**

_Would you rather remain strong as steel?_

_Oh no, so come around._

**.o.o.o.**

"Hey bastard, over here!"

Sasuke pushed himself off the wall and walked over, stopping beside the blonde girl.

He nodded to both of the girls. "Sasuke Uchiha."

The pink-haired girl turned to face him, enormous green eyes peered up at him. Her eyes twinkled slightly as smiled. "Sakura Haruno." Her arm automatically reached out to shake, which he responded to politely.

"And I'm Ino Yamanaka." The other girl introduced, also shaking his hand.

"So, what are you girls in for?" Naruto casually rested his arm on Sasuke's shoulder. The act only lasted a second as Sasuke shoved the arm of the (only slightly) shorter male off in a swift motion.

Sakura let out an amused laugh. "You make it sound like we've just been thrown into prison." Her hands slipped into the pocket of her hoodie and came out with a red BlackBerry. Sasuke inwardly nodded with approval. "Where is this man? It's 7:30 sharp, and no one's here."

Ino huffed, blowing her bangs away from her face. "And to think I though I was going to be late for this." She dropped her bags onto the floor. Her four, large, stuffed-full bags. "Anyways, we're choir kids. Soprano, mezzo-soprano." She pointed to herself and Sakura respectively. Her eyes studied them for a moment. "Not that you guys know what I'm talking about. What about you two?"

And that was when Sasuke knew that her, combined with Naruto, would be a handful.

"Bastard over here plays the piano. I do photography." He grinned and took a quick snapshot of Ino as she prepared to speak.

Ino's eyes glinted. "Uzumaki, when that gets developed, I better look good, or it's all on you." Ah, so she was _that_ kind of girl. "I was _about_to say, Sakura has been wanting to learn how to play piano. Maybe you can give her a few pointers, eh, Sasuke?"

Sakura raised an eyebrow, expression clearly showing 'What-the-hell-are-you-getting-at?'. Her hand brushed a lock of hair away from her face and smiled apologetically.

He just shrugged.

**.o.o.o.**

_I cannot contain the way I feel._

_Oh no, so come around. _

**.o.o.o.**

_7:36 AM._

A man with silver hair arrived, followed by two other men and two women.

"Good morning, students. Hope you've all gotten to know each other a little." He announced. Despite the lack of response, he continued. "Well, you're all going to be stuck together for a while, you guys might want to work on that." He paused, motioning at the teachers standing behind him. "We will be guiding you for the rest of your time on this trip. I'm Kakashi Hatake, call me whatever you like."

He pointed at the first person, a tanned man that looked like he hadn't shaved in the longest time. An unlit cigarette dangling from his lips. "Asuma Sarutobi."

The second man was tall and extremely clean with the shiniest hair Sasuke had ever seen and enormous, hairy eyebrows. "Gai Maito." He grinned and stuck out a thumbs up.

The teeth... they _pinged_.

Beside him, Sasuke thought he heard Naruto's jaw drop in awe.

"Kurenai Yuuhi." A pretty woman with dark brown hair and striking red eyes smiled at the crowd.

"And, Anko Mitarashi." A somewhat malicious looking woman with purple hair shot them a devious grin.

Sasuke shuddered inwardly. He tuned the rest of Kakashi's speech out, about ground rules and whatnot. He glanced over at his companions and saw that they were doing the same. He studied each of them individually as they conversed about the trip.

Naruto was being his usual self, joking around with the two girls. He had managed to weasel into their lives without them knowing, becoming a friend in less than an hour.

Ino's eyes were lit, arms gesticulating wildly as her mouth ran nonstop.

And Sakura, she just stood there smiling at both of them, occasionally inserting a comment of her own. She didn't look like she felt excluded, just happy.

As if she could feel his eyes, she turned to him and grinned. "Excited?"

He didn't have a chance to reply, thank god, as Kakashi called out for attention.

"Boarding tickets are coming around now."

**.o.o.o.**

_'Cause I won't back down._

_Don't stop now._

_Look into my eyes._

_No, I won't back down._

_Don't stop now._

_Let's spend one more night_

_falling._

**.o.o.o.**

The mass of teens walked down a long corridor leading to the plane.

Sasuke and Naruto, being ever so chivalrous, had taken to carrying a couple of the girls' luggage.

Or more like, Ino demanded that they be more like gentlemen, and shoved a few bags into their hands.

The foursome walked side-by-side at the very back of the group.

"Hey, hey, wait a sec." Naruto called out loudly. The whole herd stopped and turned towards the blond expectantly. He lowered his head and removed the camera from around his neck. "Let's have a picture before we leave." He walked a few steps forward and pulled a skinny tripod out from one of his bags. Leaving the camera atop, he set it for 10 seconds, and ran back into the group. "Three takes! Smile!"

He turned to look at Sakura and Ino, both whom were laughing as they stood in the front with him and Naruto. With a quick glance back, he saw that all the students had positioned themselves behind the four, the teachers in the very back, all wearing cheesy (but real) smiles.

He glanced back down at Naruto who shot him a quick grin, and faced the camera, allowing a smirk to cross over his face.

_Snap!_

"And now serious!"

He watched as Ino shifted into her demanding look, Sakura into a mother-hen look, and Naruto into a look... that wasn't quite there yet. Sasuke stared blankly into the camera.

_Snap!_

"Funny faces!"

Naruto ran over to Sasuke's right side (which was not occupied by Sakura) and jumped onto his back.

He felt some air knock out of him. Sasuke attempted to wrestle the boy- who was now smiling cheekily and had a peace sign up- off his back. His head was now craned back and he could hear Ino and Sakura dying with laugher, and footsteps running to the other side of him. Suddenly, both his and Naruto's heads were pushed forward by feminine hands. That detail almost escaped him, because all he felt after that was Naruto's lips pressed against his.

_Snap!_

"Get off of me, you idiot!" He shouted, shaking the now very willing boy off of him. His sleeved arm wiped at his lips furiously. He could see Naruto mimicking his actions, but with the bottom of his shirt.

He could've _sworn_ he saw Ino's eyes roam appreciatively over Naruto's exposed tummy.

"Gross. It's not like I wanted to do that!" Naruto faced the two girls, who were nearly rolling on the floor with laughter. "You two are evil masterminds." All the other students began filing onto the airplane.

"Relax, it was just a joke."

"Hey. One more? Just us four?" Naruto suggested.

"Sure!"

Naruto ran over to adjust the settings and jogged back over to them. "In close, everyone!" The two girls were standing with knees slightly bent in the front, cheeks almost pressed together, both smiling prettily. Naruto and Sasuke stood behind them. Naruto had one arm resting Sasuke's shoulder and the other one behind his head as he grinned. Sasuke allowed the corners of his lips to raise. Just a little.

_Snap!_

Something inside of Sasuke told him that with that very picture, he had made a pact with the three people standing beside him. A lifelong pact, one that could be held against him forever.

But somehow, he was okay with that.

**.o.o.o.**

_I've got time on my hands._

_Do you too?_

**.o.o.o.**

**A/N:** Questions, comments, suggestions. Feel free. I think this is pretty long, though. Oh yes, and the song in this chapter is **Nightfalling** by** The City Drive**.

Chapter started- 02/21/2008, chapter finished- 02/23/2008, chapter posted- 02/23/2008.


End file.
